


Fate/Kinetyke

by nialluhc



Category: Fate/stay night & Related Fandoms
Genre: Gen, a damn mess that's what is this
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-21
Updated: 2016-12-21
Packaged: 2018-09-10 22:44:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,490
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8942446
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nialluhc/pseuds/nialluhc
Summary: Two young adults get tangled up in something they hadn't expected, and may or not get killed in it.





	

As she stood up on her tiptoes in order to get a violet book on one the highest shelf of one of the many libraries in her grandfather’s studio, Margherita could not help but think that it would have been a wiser choice to get a footstool of the many in the house. After all, the components of the Pazzini family before her were never tall, but still held a high regard on magic and needed space to, well, show off all their knowledge. The villa she inhabited now was built around 150 years ago, during the times of the Italian unification, and it showed it, but it was a splendid place nevertheless. It had been a present from some duke or count to her family, as a reward for a completed mission. Which probably included the massacre of an entire malicious family of magi, as she had concluded years ago while going through the old documents of the estate. The Pazzini family had worked indeed under powerful dynasties since the 18th century, but after all they weren’t an ancient line and the country had changed greatly in a short span of time, so it could be said that they hadn’t killed a fly in at least 100 years. The house, in which Margherita had spent her childhood summers as a kid, was located in a calm and peaceful zone of Florence, far enough from the center to see the Chianti hills, but close enough to notice the Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Flowers from the highest windows. Overall, Margherita would have referred the villa as a great place to practice magecraft, without lacking grace. 

Finally getting the desired book in her hands, she turned it in order to read its cover. It was called _La Natura del Sacro Graal_ and it had picked her attention due to the already-heard title. Having great memory, she reconnected the phrase to some whispers she once heard without wanting to in the Clock Tower of London, as she had been studying there until a year ago, and her curiosity had the better hand over her height.  
The woman went to sit on a comfortable puffed red armchair that used to be her grandfather favorite place in this world, and spread the little book open.  
_The Holy Grail War is a ritual performed by Magi that are to gain more power through the kindly, all-possible Grail wish, read the book, The Grail is to be won by the War’s strongest competitor, and as said before, they are given the possibility to ask for anything, as the Grail will oblige the impossible. The Magi, chosen by the Grail itself, are seven and only seven, and they are to fight against each other with the help of seven Servants, Heroic Spirits originating from past and future legends. The seven Servants are to be classified under seven classes, which represent their abilities in life; the classes are Saber, the strongest wielder of swords; Lancer, the mightiest spear-holder; Archer, the infallible bow-user; Rider, grandiose commander and exceptional traveler; Caster, the most knowable magus; Assassin, unavoidable killer; Berserker, mind lost warrior. Three Command Spells, red markings to be found on Masters’ body, saint the bond between Master and Servant and they are used to give an absolute order to the Servant._  
Having decided to be done, Margherita closed the book and put it on the mogany desk. Raising herself up, she walked to the kitchen and drank a glass of water. Remembering the upcoming visit of her (magus) friend Kirthes, she skipped to one of the major bathrooms in the villa. Illuminated by the soft lights of the old-fashioned lanterns, she slowly brushed her long maroon hair, and as she noted the slightly worried expression in her yellow jaded eyes, she made a mental note to appear as tranquil as ever. After all, the man was quite receptive and he was an important heir of an important family: better off not making him suspicious of anything.  
Looking at her tiny hand while sighing, Margherita said, to no one really, “These red markings are going to cost me some concealer.”

-

Edmund Kirthes was fairly confident in his magic abilities. Being the only rightful heir of one of the most important German family of Magi, he had known his place and the inevitable unfolding of his life for more than ten years, and after having finished his course in the Clock Tower his responsibilities only grew even bigger. His father, the current head of the Kirthes, did not even put many duties on his son, but the child had always felt like he was being irresponsible and a burden in his parents due to his difficulties with speaking to strangers. Now 23 years old and a completely normal member of the society, Edmund liked frequenting people and exchanging opinions with them, while still not being overly sociable. It was the best course of action; he had come up with this idea years ago, as it allowed him to be relatively unsuspicious while not changing drastically his behavior until now.  
In the present time, his driver was taking Edmund to the Pazzini’s residence, where her friend and colleague Margherita was living at the moment. Having met her at the Clock Tower of London, he hadn’t seen her in some months, due to the two of them living in different countries. Margherita was the only person he had ever got to know that was more reserved that him, and their meeting usually ended up with them reading a book for themselves; the lack of unnecessary talk was what made these encounter more relaxing than anything for the man. Moreover, he greatly admired the Kabbalah female user for her almost perfected use of the Water Element, the only one along with Void he could not learn despite his best efforts. He knew though that the quality and quantity of her Magic Circuits wasn’t great. Acceptable, but not great. As her relatives before her, Margherita was not as close to True Magic as the Kirthes family, but compensated the lack of natural talent with rigorous and continued study. It was another trait of her he liked.  
As the driver had already gotten the hang of the until now unknown Italian streets, Edmund was interrupted from his train of thoughts by the older man, who told him they were arrived. While exiting the car, the young German did not fail to notice the state of the house he was going to enter. It almost seemed like it was abandoned (although, not for much time) and only one car was parked, leaving him to think that no servants inhabited it. He thought it was rather unfitting for such a powerful but reserved family of Magi, but then again, who was he to judge? Either way the house was beautiful and had style, it just needed to be redone a little bit. The garden, too, would have used a remodeling, and the shutters could be repainted. What about that roof? Some shingles were missing and overall it was in a not-so-good situation!  
While redoing the Pazzini’s household in his mind, he approached the door. Ringing the bell, he was wondering if Margherita was alone at home. She had almost never talked about her family and he only knew that she learned the basic of magic from her grandfather. Then again, he never talked about his family, too.  
The door opened, but the woman wasn’t at the door. Venturing with uncertain footsteps inside the atrium, Edmund silently clinched his teeth. There was a lot of work to do…  
Getting to the main hall, he finally met with Margherita. She had her soft-looking brown hair resting on her shoulders, and her face was exhibiting a rather neutral expression as usual. Her eyes seemed to be as catlike as ever, and they got bigger as he met his; she seemed to be coming from a room in the left and she wore a white shirt and a black knee-length skirt, and under it what seemed to be a pantyhose. Not that he was going to inform himself about it.  
“I’m sorry,” she said in her usual calm tone, “I thought you would arrive later. Please, sit down. Would you like to have anything?”  
“If it’s not a bother, I would like to have some tea.”  
Margherita just nodded, and walked smoothly to the right. Edmund looked around awkwardly and yet again styled a list of the things that were wrong or too old, but in the end he went to sit on the sofa in front of a small table. Margherita came back rather as soon as she had put the water to boil, and sit in front of him in another sofa.  
“I hope you had a nice journey, Kirthes. I suppose you have already settled in a hotel?”  
“Yes, I have chosen one in the center of the city. It’s not the best there is, but it is enough for two nights. How have you been doing?”  
“Fine. I also got you the books you were searching. Actually, I only got two and the last one should arrive next month. The shopkeeper said that he could not get it any earlier, but how will I send it to you?”  
“No worries,” Edmund smiled, “I’ll send an attendant. And I’m truly thankful that you’ve gotten them in the first place! I’ll pay you back.”  
“No,” and now it was her turn to smile, an ancient, reserved smile, “consider it a payback for all you’ve done to help me back in London. Now, excuse me.” She rose up, presumably to make the tea, and Edmund was smiling to himself in such a way that if he hadn’t been an attentive person by nature he wouldn’t have noticed the glove on the woman’s right hand.  
Left all alone in his thoughts, he was still rather warmed by Margherita’s fairness and overall gracious behavior, one that wasn’t unwelcomed but rather unexpected. He was pretty sure that she would have gotten him the books they had discussed about the previous months in a way or another, but he could not expect her to use such flattering phrases to him (actually, they would have been completely normal ones from a extroverted person, but they contrasted immensely with her usual ones) and he wondered if anything had happened. In fact, remembering as how she was wearing a glove, he supposed she must have hurt herself. He really had to ask her later.

-

Closing a little the kitchen’s door, Margherita went right to the fridge and pulled out the already opened water bottle. Damn, she wasn’t going to do it.  
She had realized immediately that her behavior would have resulted weird to Edmund, because being a good host really wasn’t her thing, plus she hadn’t smiled a lot in London. Realizing the faults of her initial plan she had tried to retire using the tea excuse (their exchange hadn’t lasted nearly enough to let the water even warm, let alone boil…) to reunite herself.  
Now actually alone, she sat down for a minute and touched her right hand with the left one, making some noise of annoyance. Had Edmund not been part of such an important Magus family, which could have had a big part on the previous Holy Wars and was maybe destined to have one even in the latest, she could have probably got away with some smiles and with giving him the books she bought for him. However, the biggest problem, in the end, was still Kirthes’ nagging.  
The man probably wasn’t even aware of it. And with him being rather nice overall, people in general didn’t mention it to him, especially because he did it only with his friends. Margherita was only slightly irritated by Kirthes for this, and she had reprimanded herself when thinking it, due to the favors given to her by him over the years in London; it still didn’t erase the fact that her grandmother used to be less unbearable than him in certain aspects. What was up with his standards, anyways? Middle class’ workers could not afford embroidered curtains, for one, and him complaining about it would have done little. Not to mention the fact he publicized up her family to be one of the strongest in Italy when its magic tradition was declining in a rather inevitable way.  
Hearing the teapot whistle, she raised herself up in a brusque way and went to actually make the tea. Her hands were shaking and her Command Spells were slightly burning on her skin, but she managed to pour it in two cups and go back to the living room.  
Entering it, the first thing she noticed was Edmund. He was standing up now, looking around- the moment he noticed her, he jumped just a little and quickly returned to sit on the couch.  
“Sorry for the wait,” she initiated.  
“N-no, don’t worry. Let’s talk about the books you bought, shall we?”  
As they started to discuss (to be frank as possible, it was mostly Edmund asking Margherita questions about where did she find them and how much did they cost with her replying with short phrases) Margherita could feel her mana going down and downer. Putting as much sugar as she could following her common sense, she started to dissolve it with rough movements of the wrist, so much that the teaspoon clinked with the cup a good number of times. Wondering if she could ever remove her Spells or give them to another person, it came to her mind that she could try asking a member of the Church. Her surname wasn’t as important as years back, but she was still an experienced magus; as for the supposed rivalry between the Magi Association and the Holy Church, she didn’t know if the latter knew of the Wars, but considering the religious nature of the Grail, she began having her doubts. She reminded herself she had to finish La Natura del Sacro Graal as soon as possible.  
For now, she had to make Kirthes leave.  
However, she knew that wasn’t possible. She only had to endure, for a limited period, and hope that he wouldn’t ask anything about her hand.  
Just as she was bringing the modern-style teacup to her lips, a loud noise erupted from Edmund’s general direction, making Margherita shudder violently, and make the hot liquid fall on her somber right hand.  
“Margherita, what on God’s name is that frame?! It is horrible! Absolutely disgusting!”  
“Ouch…”  
“Uh? Oh my, did I scare you? I’m thoroughly sorry!” and he went to sit up.  
Not hearing a word of what he just said, and sending to hell the Grail or however made it, she took her glove off and tapped her hand with a tissue. Edmund was already at her back in three seconds.  
“Margherita… What are those?”  
-  


**Author's Note:**

> First of all, thank you for reading until here! I am writing this fanfiction as an exercise for my English, and the form could be wrong sometimes. Please, comment or send feedback about possible mistakes in this story, I'd really appreciate it!  
> Also, I am aware there is an on-going Fate story set in Florence, but I'd already began writing this one when it came out. I am not going to reveal anything else, but this story won't be set there for the most part.


End file.
